Stop obsessing over native mobile apps: you don’t need one. That is the advice of Paul Boag, co-founder of web design agency Headscape and author of the “Website Owners Manual” and “Building Websites for Return on Investment.” Here he outlines why you need to chill out

Starbucks Cup Magic launches for iPhone and Android devices in the US next week and allows users to point their iPhone at specially designed Christmas cups and see all sorts of fancy dancing things and enter competition

Consumers are cutting back and consistently looking for bargains, says the BRC. As a result online sales growth slowed to 11.5% in October, with total retail spending on the high street falling back by 0.6%, on a like-for-like basis.

M&S is trialling new multimedia instore areas that allow shoppers to browse and order extended fashion ranges as it works to become an international multichannel retailer.

A recent UK survey of 2000 mobile phone users commissioned by Opinion Matters on behalf of Gemalto, a digital security company, found that only 32% of consumers know what NFC stands for, and a large number expressed security concerns about using a mobile wallet

Silly-hatted, funk-lite pop midget Jamiroquai is to use NFC technology to provide fans with exclusive mobile content and to enter competitions when they come to see him in action in a selection of European venues on his latest tour

Yell says it has seen the number of websites it grows for customers grow fast in the first half of its financial year. The company has bought an ecommerce technology company and struck partnerships with suppliers of ecommerce services as it looks to become a leader in eMarketplaces.

Videogaming retailer Game Group has taken on a new search agency to help it in its mission of trebling online sales in the next three years. Greenlight will manage both its SEO and paid media work.

More than half of online shoppers think the option of collecting goods they ordered online in-store is important, found new research from Postcode Anywhere. The company says this is good news for bricks and mortar retailers, but also underlines the importance for them of offering strong multichannel services.

Best Buy UK’s 11 stores are set to close by the end of this calendar year, joint owner Carphone Warehouse said today. While the stores had delivered ‘exceptional’ customer service, they had not been profitable.

A new report from Juniper Research has found that value of mobile retail marketing will reach $15 billion globally by 2012 as digital ad spend moves to mobile and mobile coupons gain acceptance – a growth of 50% over 2011. Mobile retail marketing spend in North America and Western Europe is accelerating faster than in the Far East and China

Daily deals site Groupon launched on the US Nasdaq stock exchange today in a deal that raised it £437.5m and valued it at almost $13bn. Shares rose sharply and by lunchtime, US time, the company was valued at $18.2bn. The flotation is the biggest for an internet business since Google’s admission in 2004.

The UK’s internet consumers are only slightly more confident about their ability to spend than they were three months ago, new data from the British Retail Consortium shows – but 86% believe the country is in recession and 76% fear for jobs.

Why is detailed product information so important for customers, and how can retailers get it right? Simon Walker, director of product management for Stibo Systems considers.

A new study has found that UK shoppers are keen to buy online, especially when it comes to films, books and music, but are most likely to be put off by shipping costs, foreign language product descriptions and prices that are not in sterling. Meanwhile, most Chinese shoppers will buy clothes, shoes and household goods online, and Brazilians like to buy computer equipment and consumer electronics online, a Pitney Bowes study found.

iBuildApp.com has released four new templates of its easy to use iOS and Android app building kit that are aimed squarely at small businesses, restaurants, muscians and e-book publishers – and all with out the need to understand programming

Shoppers are in for a treat this Christmas, as retailers invest in technology to improve the in-store and online experience. Research conducted by Virgin Media Business, which looked at what technologies are being used by the flagship stores in Oxford Street, has uncovered a wealth of innovation that will delight customers this Christmas

Asos has unveiled pre-tax profits, after exceptional items, down by more than a third following the costs of moving to a new distribution centre. The company said the investment would support its ambition of growing sales to more than £1bn by 2015.

The strength of Next’s online business helped to lift its total sales for the third quarter of the year. For while internet sales rose, high street sales fell during the 12 weeks to October 29.

eBay has dramatically revised its global m-commerce forecast, predicting that it will now generate almost $5billion in sales volume in 2011 – $1billion more than the $4billion prediction made earlier this year